General Social Survey, 1972-2010 [Cumulative File] (ICPSR 31521)

The General Social Surveys (GSS) were designed as part of a data diffusion project in 1972. The GSS replicated questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. The latest survey, GSS 2010, includes a cumulative file that merges all 28 General Social Surveys into a single file containing data from 1972 to 2010. The items appearing in the surveys are one of three types: Permanent questions that occur on each survey, rotating questions that appear on two out of every three... (more info)

The General Social Surveys (GSS) were designed as part of a data diffusion project in 1972. The GSS replicated questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. The latest survey, GSS 2010, includes a cumulative file that merges all 28 General Social Surveys into a single file containing data from 1972 to 2010. The items appearing in the surveys are one of three types: Permanent questions that occur on each survey, rotating questions that appear on two out of every three surveys (1973, 1974, and 1976, or 1973, 1975, and 1976), and a few occasional questions such as split ballot experiments that occur in a single survey. The 2010 surveys included four topic modules: quality of working life, science, shared capitalism, and CDC high risk behaviors. The International Social Survey Program (ISSP) module included in the 2010 survey was environment. The data also contain several variables describing the demographic characteristics of the respondents.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: